1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), and more specifically, to slurries and methods for chemical-mechanical polishing of metal.
2. Background
Advances in semiconductor manufacturing technology have led to the development of integrated circuits having multiple levels of interconnect. In such an integrated circuit, patterned conductive material on one interconnect level is electrically insulated from patterned conductive material on another interconnect level by films of material such as, for example, silicon dioxide. These conductive materials are typically a metal or metal alloy. Connections between the conductive material at the various interconnect levels are made by forming openings in the insulating layers and providing an electrically conductive structure such that the patterned conductive material from different interconnect levels are brought into electrical contact with each other. These electrically conductive structures are often referred to as contacts or vias.
Other advances in semiconductor manufacturing technology have lead to the integration of millions of transistors, each capable of switching at high speed. A consequence of incorporating so many fast switching transistors into an integrated circuit is an increase in power consumption during operation. One technique for increasing speed while reducing power consumption is to replace the traditional aluminum and aluminum alloy interconnects found on integrated circuits with a metal such as copper, which offers lower electrical resistance. Those skilled in the electrical arts will appreciate that by reducing resistance, electrical signals may propagate more quickly through the interconnect pathways on an integrated circuit. Furthermore, because the resistance of copper is significantly less than that of aluminum, the cross-sectional area of a copper interconnect line, as compared to an aluminum interconnect line, may be made smaller without incurring increased signal propagation delays based on the resistance of the interconnect. Additionally, because the capacitance between two electrical nodes is a function of the overlap area between those nodes, using a smaller copper interconnect line results in a decrease in parasitic capacitance. In this way, replacing aluminum based interconnects with copper based interconnects provides, depending on the dimensions chosen, reduced resistance, reduced capacitance, or both.
As noted above, copper has electrical advantages, such as lower resistance per cross-sectional area, the ability to provide for reduced parasitic capacitance, and greater immunity to electromigration. For all these reasons, manufacturers of integrated circuits find it desirable to include copper in their products.
While advantageous electrically, copper is difficult to integrate into the process of making integrated circuits. As is known in this field, copper can adversely affect the performance of metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) field effect transistors (FETs) if the copper is allowed to migrate, or diffuse, into the transistor areas of an integrated circuit. Therefore copper diffusion barriers must be used to isolate copper metal from those transistor areas. Additionally, unlike aluminum based metal interconnect systems which are formed by subtractive etch processes, copper interconnects are typically formed by damascene metal processes. Such processes are also sometimes referred to as inlaid metal processes. In a damascene process, trenches are formed in a first layer, and a metal layer is formed over the first layer including the trenches. Excess metal is then polished off leaving individual interconnect lines in the trenches. The removal of the excess copper is typically accomplished by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). Although there are many known variations of the damascene method of metallization, the most common method for removing the excess copper metal is by CMP.
Accordingly, there is a need for CMP methods, materials, and apparatus to polish conductive materials such as copper.